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Black-footed Ferret Recovery Program

Partners & Participants

• Federal Agencies (FWS, USGS, USFS, BLM, NPS, NRCS, APHIS, US Army, BIA)

• States (AZ, CO, KS, MT, NM, SD, UT, WY)• Local Governments (Fort Collins, Boulder County)• Foreign Governments (Canada, Mexico)• Tribes (Cheyenne River Sioux, Crow, Ft. Belknap, Lower Brule,

Northern Cheyenne, Rosebud, Navajo)• NGOs (Audubon, Colorado Cattlemen’s Association, Defenders

of Wildlife, NWF, Prairie Wildlife Research, Turner ESF, TNC, WWF)

• Zoos (FWS NBFFCC, Smithsonian, Louisville, Cheyenne Mountain, Phoenix, Toronto)

• Private landowners (AZ, CO, KS, NM, SD, WY)

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The historical range of the black-footed ferret coincided with ranges of the black-tailed, white-tailed, and Gunnison’s prairie dogs. Approximately 85% of all ferrets occurred in black-tailed prairie dog habitat, 8% in Gunnison’s, and 7% in white-tailed.

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Historically, the black-footed ferret occupied an estimated 100 million acres of intermountain and prairie grasslands in the western U.S., Canada, and Mexico, within ~ 562 million acres of potential habitat. By 1987, there were no remaining wild ferrets.

The decline of the black-footed ferret is tied to its close association with prairie dogs,

which were dramatically reduced beginning in the late 1800s due to:

• Conversion of native rangeland to cropland (1880s – 1920s)

• Large-scale prairie dog poisoning campaigns (1918 – 1972)

• Unregulated recreational shooting (some instances; 1940s - present)

• Sylvatic plague (1930s – present)

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Plague Effects

Plague is present throughout the BFF’s historical range

Black-tailed Prairie Dog Occupied Habitat at Rocky Mountain Arsenal NWR

Fluctuations in Response to Plague

19881989

19901991

19921993

19941995

19961997

19981999

0

1,000

2,000

3,000

4,000

5,000

Acres

Year

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Plague Pathway

Yersinia pestis – non-native bacterium that

causes plague Flea bites prairie dog

Flea bites BFF

BFF eats prairie dog

Prairie dogs infect each other

Plague Considerations• Plague directly impacts ferrets via infection and

subsequent mortality.• Plague indirectly impacts ferrets via its effects on

prairie dogs and subsequent dramatic declines in the ferret’s primary prey base.

• Plague can be managed through ferret vaccination and vector control, but these approaches have limitations; an IPM strategy is needed.

• Oral sylvatic plague vaccine research trials and systemic flea control trials show promise; projects are currently being ramped up to the landscape scale.

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Captive breeding has been successfulNATIONAL BLACK-FOOTED FERRET CONSERVATION CENTER

CARR, COLORADO (completed 2005, first kits 2006)

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Pen-rearing has enriched natural behaviors & increased BFF survival rates when released into the wild.

Reintroduction efforts have been successful

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1) Shirley Basin, WY, 1991

2) Badlands NP, SD, 1994

3) UL Bend NWR, MT, 1994

4) Conata Basin, SD, 1996

5) Aubrey Valley, AZ, 1996

6) Ft. Belknap, MT, 1997

7) Coyote Basin, UT, 1999

8) Cheyenne River, SD, 2000

9) Wolf Creek, CO, 2001

10) BLM 40 Complex, MT, 2001

11) Janos, Mexico, 2001

12) Rosebud, SD, 2003

13) Lower Brule, SD, 2006

14) Wind Cave NP, SD, 2007

15) Espee Ranch, AZ, 2007

16) Logan County, KS, 2007

17) Northern Cheyenne, MT, 2008

18) Vermejo Ranch, btpd NM, 2008

19) Grasslands NP, SK, 2009

20) Vermejo Ranch gpd, NM , 2012

21) Walker Ranch, CO, 2013

22) City of Fort Collins, CO, 2014

23) South Holly, CO, 2014

24) Liberty, CO, 2014

25) Rocky Mountain Arsenal, CO, 2015

26) Crow Reservation, MT, 2015

27) South Holly, CO, 2015

28) Meeteetse, WY, 2016

Locations of active, immediate potential, and intermediate potential black-footed ferret reintroduction sites (Luce 2008)

Additional ReleaseSites are Needed:

Past planning efforts need to be revisited and expanded; need $$ for plague management

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Black-footed Ferret Occupied Habitat: Historically & at Proposed Delisting Management Challenges

• Regulatory assurances (Safe Harbor,10j, and Section 7 approaches)

• Landowner incentives to increase tolerance of prairie dogs

• Boundary prairie dog control (where needed)

• Refinement and expansion of plague management efforts

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Regulatory Assurances• The BFF Programmatic Safe Harbor Agreement (BFF PSHA) is

a site-specific complement to experimental, non-essential population designations.

• Provides regulatory assurances to non-federal landowners wishing to voluntarily conserve BFF.

• Assumes a zero baseline for all enrolled properties and covers allagricultural activities except for cultivation of rangeland.

• Site-specific reintroduction plans are developed with partner input; include designation of conservation and management zones and coordination with neighboring landowners, state agency personnel, and local government officials.

• Landowners may withdraw at any time without penalty.• Automatic incidental take coverage for neighbors.

BFF PSHA Implementation Status• A total of 17 landowners have enrolled in the BFF

PSHA since 2013, resulting in 9 new reintroduction sites (2 in AZ, 5 in CO, 1 in KS, 1 in MT).

• In 2014, NRCS offered BFF incentives through its EQIP program for the first time:– Required enrollment in the BFF PSHA– 52 applicants total (CO and MT)– 10 contracts approved in CO at $24.93/ac. for 3 yrs.– Key to securing new BFF reintroduction sites

• Future incentive programs should be longer in term and available throughout the BFF range; plague management efforts need to keep up.

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Future Recovery Efforts• Plague management is critical.• Partners will need to be strategic in applying

conservation efforts.• Political hurdles preventing reintroduction efforts at

some sites must be overcome.• Incentives for private landowners and funding for

boundary prairie dog control must be expanded.• Complex size matters; smaller sites will likely require

periodic augmentation.• The ability to trap and translocate wild-born kits will be

key to future reintroduction efforts.

1986, Nature (Robert May): “If such a mess can be made of efforts to save a creature as attractive as the black-footed ferret in a country as well organized and prosperous as the United States, prospects for conservation in other parts of the world are indeed bleak.”

2008, IUCN Press Release: “The most comprehensive assessment of the world’s mammals has confirmed an extinction crisis, with almost one in four at risk of disappearing forever …. but it is not all bad news. The assessment of the world’s mammals shows that species can recover with concerted conservation efforts. The black-footed ferret moved from extinct in the wild to endangered after successful reintroductions into eight western states and Mexico from 1991-2008.”